Triple-Word Seven-Letter
by doctoruth
Summary: Brittany and Santana play Scrabble. One-shot set during Season 3.


The scratch of Brittany's koosh pen cutting through two sheets of paper makes Santana look up from her rack of tiles; she smiles inwardly at the sight of her girlfriend's tongue poking out of the corner of her mouth as Brittany performs mental arithmetic. Santana tries to keep her expression impassive, not wanting Brittany to think she's making fun. It's hard, though, because Brittany pauses, shakes her empty pen, and then starts to perform her new-pen ritual.

She goes over to the desk and pulls out the second drawer of her desk to where she keeps packs of new identical pens. Santana tightens her lips in a non-smile as she watches - she watches this whenever she can, because it's like a secret _I love you_ - and Brittany dismantles one of the new pens, removes the ink barrel, and puts it in the old koosh pen.

The pen casing is 10 years old; Santana gave it her when they were 8; and its original scuffed plastic has seen several hundred new insides.

"Ok. Your total is 144."

Santana takes the opportunity to grin toothily now that it can't be interpreted as making fun. "Oh, yeah? Am I kicking your ass?"

"You wish."

Santana reaches over to tickle Brittany's side in response. "Watch it, you know I'm a sore loser."

Brittana swats Santana's hand away and giggles. "Not with me, remember? You get this funny look when I win and then we always end up having sex straight after."

Santana places a kiss square on Brittany's nose. "I can't help it, you're irresistible."

"Stop, Santana, we'll never finish the game if you keep trying to start a makeout session."

"Fine." Santana leans back to her side of the board and pokes at her Scrabble tiles. "Hmmmm…"

"Are you stu-uck?" Brittany singsongs the last word and waggles her eyebrows while bouncing on her crossed legs.

"No, I just… pass the dictionary."

Brittany places the book in Santana's waiting hand and watches her while she leafs through the pages. Santana closes it with a snap and puts down the word _lick_.

"You had to look up 'lick'?"

Santana screws up her nose. "No, Britt, of course not. I was checking something else."

Brittany squints and mouths _lick_ while noting Santana's score. "Ok, my turn."

Santana sneaks looks at Brittany's frown while pretending to shuffle her letters around in front of her. "Hey, Britt?"

"Yeah?" Brittany answers without looking up from her rack.

"Do you want to… make this interesting?"

Brittany looks up sharply. "San, last time we bet on the outcome of Scrabble you ended up carrying Tubbs around in a baby backpack for a week while he recovered from the flu." Brittany places the word _lid _down on the board and tallies her points.

Santana scowls at the memory of carrying Lord Tubbington. "Yeah, but I have a really good feeling about this game."

"You're losing by-" Brittany stares at the paper while she adds-"96 points."

"Stiiiill."

"If you're sure. Ok, if I win, I want you to take me to Columbus Zoo again. And I want you to be super nice to everyone in Glee club for a week. Because they won't know what's going on and I can convince them you've been switched with an alien Santana."

"Deal. If I win, I want Lord Tubbington to stay with your cousin for a whole week so I can spend nights with you without being interrupted by him climbing onto the bed or scratching on your door."

Brittany puts out her hand to shake on it and Santana takes her hand and kisses it instead.

"Now that this game means something…" Santana puts _exo _down in the bottom left hand corner, turning _lid_ into _lido_ in the process.

"Exo? Hugs and kisses? You can't have stuff like that, remember."

"No, Britt, see?" Santana passes the dictionary open on the right page. "It's legit."

"Hm. Ok." Brittany narrows her eyes. "You were saving that, weren't you? That's why you suddenly wanted to place bets."

"No do-overs," Santana grins evilly and bounces a little. "So, Britt-Britt, that's _exo _on the triple word… plus _lido_, which is…"

"34."

"Yes."

"Fine." Brittany frowns even more deeply than before and reaches for the dictionary. She looks between her tiles and the book for several minutes. Santana starts to shift a little. "Do you need to put tiles back?"

Brittany smiles. "You're not getting off that easy."

"Just saying, if you need to, it's nothing to be ashamed of."

Brittany looks back at the board. Then a smile starts around her eyes and slowly tugs the corners of her mouth up. Santana shifts again, uncomfortably now, because she's seen that look before. Brittany turns to her with a fully bloomed grin and speaks.

"You shouldn't have done that thing for me last week."

"What?" Santana cocks her head, thinking. "Oh… do you mean that, uh, dance?" Santana's voice drops on the last word, and Brittany laughs.

"There's no one here, Santana, you don't have to whisper."

Santana blushes. "But, what does that have to do with Scrabble?"

Brittany smiles triumphantly and plucks the tiles off her board, one by one, until there are no tiles left on her rack and the word _exotically_ extends off from Santana's _exo _in the bottom left hand corner, out across the middle of the board and over the triple word square.

"Seven letters _and_ triple word." Brittany beams. "That's, uh… 23, times 3, so… 69, plus 50, which is… 119."

Santana tries to scowl but can't help grinning back. "Britt, you genius."

"You should probably just surrender now."

"Only if the loser gets a consolation prize."

Brittany smiles shyly. "I'll let you kiss a genius."

"Deal."


End file.
